Weekly Pastoral Message prepared by Rev. Murray Adamthwaite
for Sunday 17th May 1998

From the Pastor: He ascended into heaven I

"We have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens" Hebrews 4:14 On the traditional church calendar the Ascention is often overlooked, at least in the English-speaking world, while other things often crowd in. You may remember that last year I wrote a series of meditations on the ascention around this time, and it is well that we take the time to ponder it again. Before His sufferings Jesus insisted, "It is to your advantage that I go away" (John 16:7), and when He ascended He became our intercessor and Advocate before the Father. This is certainly to our advantage, in the following way. We see many courtroom movies on our TV screens relating to some story of a person who runs foul of the law and tries desparately to clear his name. Then the story line follows how he resorts to "private detective" work to find some decisive evidence which will finally vindicate him. But what if there is no such evidence? What if the case is rock solid, backed by a welter of irrefutable contrary evidence? Then there can be no prospect of vindication. The only hope is that the judge will be lenient, that some sort of plea-bargaining will mitigate the conviction and sentence. This is precisely the position every person is in before the Great Judge; and here is where the Ascended Christ, having "purged our stains", will plead our case for us. We are in no position to do anything for ourselves. But we do have Christ our Advocate who shows to the Judge the results of his atoning sufferings and pleads for our release and pardon. His pleading will clear our names. Herein is the Gospel message.